Pete Buttigieg dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, saying he no longer saw a change of winning, the day after fellow moderate Joe Biden won a big victory in South Carolina.
The move shook up the Democratic contest to pick a candidate to take on Republican President Donald Trump in November’s election and came two days before the 14-state Super Tuesday nominating contests that will offer the biggest electoral prize so far.
Buttigieg, a 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who gained early momentum after he narrowly won the Iowa caucuses last month and finished a close second in New Hampshire, had sought to unite Democrats, independents and moderate Republican voters. But he finished a distant third in Nevada and fourth in South Carolina.
His departure leaves six contenders in the Democratic presidential race, which once had more than 20 candidates. It was assumed that Buttigieg was dropping out to avoid helping the far left front-runner Bernie Sanders, a senator from Vermont and self-described democratic socialist.
